Friday, 4 September 2015

This child's death was tragic but it was not our fault

Which brings
us back to the child’s corpse on the beach in Turkey. I repeat, it’s
awful. Heartbreaking. But it’s not our fault, and it’s not our
responsibility, however compassionate we might feel.

The father told the Mail that the family were fleeing the war in Syria when the dinghy capsized.

Miraculously, he survived, although he couldn’t save his wife and two children.

But
here’s what puzzles me. They’d been living in Turkey for the past year.
So why didn’t he apply for asylum there? After all, surely culturally
Syria has more in common with Turkey, another Muslim country, than with
Tunbridge Wells or Trondheim.

We’re
also told that he’s a Kurd. So why didn’t he move to Kurdistan? Who
knows? And that’s just the point. No one knows anything for sure.

Similarly,
the shocking death of a child should never be exploited just because
media tarts and ‘liberal’ luvvies such as Jackboots Jacqui and the
absurd Emma Thompson can feel good about themselves.